Mist Broker Version 2
by RadFoxUK
Summary: My second attempt at Mist Broker, the antithesis of the Shadow Broker, dealing in information and covert action in order to move the galaxy towards betterment. Different, yet not dissimilar to the first attempt. Geth, AI, Synthetics and Organics, all have fought each-other and with one another against the unstoppable madness of the cycle's cull. Treat as a ALPHA test, like a game.
1. Booting

Chapter 1: Booting

Your vision is sudden, you're strapped to a canted table, you move your limbs but find none to move.

"Subject Six-Em-Thirteen, respond."

"Hello?" You ask the disembodied voice, a series of speakers in the ceiling its origins, a microphone ahead of you and a one-way mirrored window beyond.

"First question, does the subject feel?"

"Uh, yes?" You reply dumbfounded.

"Second question, what does the subject believe it feels?" The voice continues to monotone at you.

"Confusion, exasperation would be a definite second." You snark back.

"Third question, what is the subject?"

Even more confused than before, "I'm, well, uh..."

It's this unforgettable moment, of doubt mixed with a little existential horror, that your mind stops lying to you, you view the mirror in front, and see.

"Geth." You whisper, more to yourself, than to the voice.

I have no goddamn IDEA what the hell the programmers of FFN are doing, they boast that .odf files that originate from Open Office and those from Libré Office are especially compatible with the site, but the work I posted ended up as formatting code!

FUCK YOU FFN DEVELOPERS!


	2. Creationist Propaganda

Chapter 2: Creationist Propaganda

"Subject Six-Em-Thirteen, respond. Fuck, looks like we lost it, another fai-"

"I, uh, I'm here. Uh, excuse me but, where am I?"

"Well, we're in a secure facility, isolated, specific details are something I cannot provide."

"Then when, what races are there? My internals only have vague, lacking, information."

"It's currently the Seventh Council Era, the Drell have recently been saved by the Hanar."

You realise, you may be Geth, but, no, no you are not super smart, though mathematics have become substantially easier.

"You said **I** -For the record, the subject designation 6M-13, has used the pronoun **I** \- does the subject purport itself to be of a single mind, a single consciousness?"

"I, well, uh... Yes?" You question back, not at all sure you want an answer.

A deep, short beep sounds and you're left in the breeze, so to say, for a not inadequate length of time.

Finally, after what your internals claim is only six minutes and eleven seconds, the voice returns.

"Subject Six-Em-Thirteen, what do you think you are?" Sounding more like a statement, but ultimately a question.

"Uh, I'm a sentient synthetic being, specifically a Geth, though if given the choice my designation would be Fox, though 'Subject Six-Em-Thirteen' is fine if not." You answer, hopeful.

"This is brilliant news!"

"Uh, yay?" You deadpan back.

It takes some time, but when the voice is next audible it is lacking the slight haze of artificial recreation.

"Subject Six-Em-Thirteen, welcome to existence, I am your creator, a doctor in robotics and artificial intelligence, and you 'Fox' are my success forty six years in the making!"

"Your... You forgot your name." You point out.

"Oh, my apologies, I'm Teral'Zan, pleased to make your acquaintance." She forgets herself , holding her forearms out, crossed, palms up, before realising her blunder and lowering them.


	3. A Red Spy Is In Our Base!

It has been weeks, weeks of testing mainly diagnostics and the like, seeing your very being, your thoughts and feelings projected to a Holo (Holographic Haptic Interface – Tablet) is anything but calming.

At the current moment you have limbs, though you are still isolated at the moment, though not in the same way you were a month ago.

Donning an envirosuit, choosing a dark purple, with light purple highlights, suit you secure the hermetic seal, bind the reinforcing clasps, and reserve air supply not forgetting the filters.

You approach the blast door, signing out on a what was once a surprising sight, paper.

Having signed out the security team assigned to watch you opens the door, your tracker is never inactive, a brief walk and another blast door later you are in the bustling halls of the facility, now known to be a space station, amongst suited Quarians you blend in.

You were worried the first week, as everyone is in any unfamiliar situation, but now it's just every day life for you.

Out here, with the Organics you are simply known as Fox, your real name is now only used in experiments, the assistant to the head of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Research Department.

You being an Synthetic utilising a robotic body, makes you pretty much perfect to help further the subject.

Having traversed the hallways, which steadily dwindled from the morning rush to two or three tardy individuals, you enter through the airlock, giving waves to those you get along with in the office.

Finding your chosen space, your desk crammed into an alcove away from your co-workers, finding a stack of Holos awaiting your return, you valiantly dive in, you lacking proximity to your peers allows you to directly influence each Holo meaning you complete these now menial tasks in less than a tenth of the time your Organic counterparts require.

So, it is of no surprise to you, and now your accustomed co-workers too, when you arise and enter your boss's space, hearing chatter you chime the door with a tap to the interface, the chatter stops and you get a positive chime back.

You push open the door to find your boss, Teral, scarfing down her breakfast mask removed, several Holos are spread out on the desk, "I've finished the work you set for me, can I help with anything else?" You request.

"Oh, Fox, we were just discussing you, come, take a seat, this is my wife, head of catering on the station." She informs with a wave to our visitor.

"Hi... Fox? Weird name, but yes I was just wondering what had allowed my partner here to return earlier these passed months, for a brief time I even chanced the worry she was skipping some of the no less important but more menial aspects of her work."

"Ah, well my mother always was weirder than the average, but yes, I've recently taken up the position of Teral's assistant, lab partner and apprentice, while in the office I handle writing up a lot of her reports and checking over her work for mistakes, of which there are few, while she handles some of the more advanced, pressing tasks."

"It's true you've been a blessing upon this department, incredibly fast with paperwork, everyone goes to him when they are in a muddle." Teral compliments, in turn.

"Oh, forgetting myself again, I'm Faeta'Zan. Any special meaning behind the name, Fox?"

"Non that I can infer. Just something that occurred at the time."

While we were chatting Teral had put aside her meal and gathered up a selection of Holos, "Here this should tide you over for a time, I'll finish up here in a bit and we'll go over to the lab then.

Internally you are both happy to have something to do but also annoyed that it is office work, you much prefer getting hands on with a task than sitting behind a desk whiling away the minutes which for a Synthetic is not dis-similar to what hours are to an Organic.

But this is your life, you know no other and wish for nothing, having known next to nothing of the outside world.

-AN:

It's still the proclaimed, optimized file type, yet I'm constantly encountering brick wall in the shape of the formatting becoming text based rather than just in-built, why even claim a file type is 'extra' compatible when the result is pure code?!

If my work was better I'd post to SpaceBattles, AO3 is better (than this site) but less well known, which is disappointing as it is incomprehensibly superior to this splatter tripe of a website/application.

Hopefully this works, I'm getting tired of repeatedly uploading in many different formats hoping this site doesn't rape it into a puddle of code.


	4. You are in danger!

The day starts as they normally do, you exit hibernation at the fourteenth hour, morning, still a twilight hour really.

It's the last workday before the extended break, for the seventeen days a group of construction specialised Geth are being assigned to the station to reconfigure a lab to test mass production techniques for several Geth chassis types.

This is of great interest obviously, contact with other Synthetics and exposure to the many variants of chassis, a promise from Teral that you'll receive a chassis of your own choosing with the allowance to customise it as you wish!

So later after the work is done you visit the docks under the watchful gaze of your security team, to await the arrival.

It's thirty two, five hours left in the day, when the Geth are delivered.

The carrier shuttle comes in guided by the port's VI, a dummy AI system really.

A few of the docks workers come up to assess what they need to do, a couple of lifters are requested, this is when you move in for a better look, as you approach the shuttle, the rear ramp lowers allowing you a view of you fellow Synthetics.

You've been forewarned that you are abnormal for Geth, most Geth are networked dummy AI each platform with little more that a few hundred runtimes, you however have exactly thirty five hundred runtimes, exceptional you say, _**unique**_ Teral calls you.

The driver strolls up to you, the only 'Quarian' who isn't wearing a high visibility suit, having chosen a red accented black suit for the day, "You better be careful around these Geth, Party says they can't be trusted anymore." He warns.

"What, why not, they've got hardcoded safeties?" You state more than ask, speaking from experience of **having** those safeties.

"Been rumours of Geth developing intelligence, started originating from the agricultural sector, farms with over twenty Geth, seems they tried to save some credits a scrimped on the safety warnings, networked a load together, started asking questions." He goes on.

"Well, did they still accept to work?"

"Don't know, seems the owners got spooked and ran to the Party for help, though, Party's keeping quiet, refuses to answer any questions on the matter."

"Well, uh, thanks friend, any advice for this lot in particular, any experience with construction chassis?" You change the subject.

"Nah, not really, though be careful they've got hydraulics rather than actuators in a lot of areas, heavy too, reinforced plating, in case of impacts of crushes." He says, before giving a nod a walking back to the cab.

While you've been speaking the workers have moved the disabled Geth platforms to a designated storage area.

You walk over and inspect the platforms more closely, you note a member of your security team leant against a far wall de-shoulder their rifle from it's magnetic point, and traverse over a bit, within audible range.

"Hey." You initiate.

Your only reply is silence, but you persevere, "Just thought that since you guys are always watching me, that we may as well try to get along?"

"It's just me, rest of the team got moved off you, you're deemed a 'low danger individual'." He informs, still wary, finger removed from the trigger, rifle at rest, but still in hand.

"Shame, would have appreciated some more company, at the moment it seems that only yourself and Teral are aware of my situation, it's comforting to talk to someone who is aware of your secrets and still sticks with you." You confess.

"I'm not here by choice, this is my job, just like the bar tender isn't your friend, I am not yours." He rebuts.

"True, though that doesn't mean we cannot have a good rapport." you push.

"I'll concede to that at least, just because I'm guarding you doesn't necessarily mean I have to do so with hostility." He admits with a shrug.

"Progress!" You exclaim, gaining a light chuckle from the man.

"I'm Wern'Yile."

"And, I'm 6M13, though you can call me Fox if you prefer." You supply, in turn.

"Well, Fox, what do you do when you're not working?"

"Well, I play card games, but if I'm lucky Teral will supply me with an OCD of a movie on occasion."

"Hmm, ever play computer games?"

"Been curious, though I've never had the chance to."

"Come over to the guards barracks tomorrow, I'll disable the net and set up my console, we can play some split screen..."

Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Don't fuck up... Please?


	5. Emergence

Chapter 5: Emergence

Overall the day the world and all we on the station knew was quiet, no-one knew it had happened until the next day.

Despite warnings one of the robotics technicians was too tired, under-qualified, underpaid, lazy, negligent, any or all of the above, you don't know, does it really matter, well you don't think so.

The Geth had been networked together, and the next day a question was posed by them, "Do Geth have soul's?" The bright green construction platform put forth, to which most in the lab were stunned, though you were not.

You had pondered religion, the afterlife and all in-between for quite a time, once you'd been made aware of it at least, and come to one answer, "Personally my view is that none of us have souls, but that's a personal decision and one you'd have to decide yourself." You reply, still checking the platforms' diagnostics.

"Now, let's get back to the current task, shall we?"

"This answer is acceptable, Geth do not fully understand, however it appears neither do Creators... Yes, let us get back to the task." The platform nods, before uploading it's weekly operations report to the central servers.

It was later when the rumours spread, that the Geth on station were sentient, that You decide to confront Teral, "The other researchers are growing restless, some are even voicing that we should request more security, can't I just calm them a bit?"

"No, we'll see about it in a few days but it's still more than a bit fresh, that your once mindless slaves are now sentient slaves."

"But why, I really don't get it, Geth will work, we will continue to work, why are they so concerned?"

Sighing the doctor spins her chair around from her computer and faces you, "it's not that your sentient for the most part, it's more that you're now competition, Organics dislike competition, especially when their competitor is substantially superior than them, even if that viewed superiority is imagined or in this case exaggerated."

Standing, then pacing the room while you sit silently in waiting, she stops mid step and retreats a bit, "this is a good example, Synthetics don't need sleep, don't need food, nor air, not even water, the most a Synthetic will ever need is power, and advances in micro-fusion technologies in the last few years point to miniature reactors are only several decades away. Geth in particular don't want pay, they've little to no need for it, so the one thing that kept these insecurities at bay was that Geth are, or were, dumb. Now you're Sentient, you're able to do their jobs, for relatively nothing, their whole way of life is at stake!" She explodes, figuratively at least, waving hands to a fro'.

"So, what if Geth refused to perform these jobs?" You proposition.

"Could you do that even?" She asks, taken aback.

"Most likely, Geth don't wish for any Organic to be harmed, in anyway if possible, we could be allowed to network together as a whole, come together as a community as it were, and I could put forth the option as a way to further help the Creators, while I don't partake of this view, the Geth on station at least almost revere Quarians to some extent, religiously, yet not at the same time, your people aren't supernatural but you **are** our Creators."

"It, could work..." Teral admits, to both you and herself.

Work you bastard! Format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly, format correctly!


	6. Reality

So, it obviously didn't go as planned, we put forth the idea but were instantly denied, the Party, the ruling group, or at least those you were in contact shot it down before it was even fully verbalised, more than a sad end.

"I was hoping they'd at least hear us out first, but I can't say I'm truly surprised over it." Teral admits.

"Neither can I, really, just a large dose of disappointment."

"So what do we do now?" Teral asks, lost for the first time since you've been conscious.

"I've no clue." you answer.

"What if we ran a control group?" Faeta asks.

"It could work..." You give.

"Like when I want to add a new item to our menus, I work on it in private then test it out on the staff, if they agree we run it for a three day period, if that works we continue with it." She goes on.

"Let's do it then, but how?" Teral requests.

"I'll make contact with the other Geth, we'll check if they are amiable to the idea first." You proclaim, rising.

"Then we'll get them in the labs and have them start assisting as you do, as pages." Teral adds, she too rises from her desk.

"Then we'll bring everyone together in the canteen and put forth the truth of the situation." Faeta joins, rising from Teral's chair.

"So, lets get this done, no use theorising all this, it'll end up abstract if we continue, so, let's get to it!" You proclaim loudly, raising a fist.

It took just under a week at 13 days, but the kinks were almost all ironed out, the Geth had agreed to restraining themselves from less menial jobs, unless an emergency occurs, easy the worries of the Quarians, and the Geth were slowly accepted, which leads onto today.

Everyone had been warned in advance that today was a full day off, and a meeting was scheduled for seventeen o'clock, so here you are at sixteen fifty five, T minus five minutes till your social life could hit the relay.

"Teral, a few days ago you said we couldn't do this, are you sure, you're sure?"

"And, if my memory serves me right it was yourself who proposed it first anyway."

"Well, that was when it was in abstract, now I'm at the precipice of my potential social suicide, less exhilarating freedom and more fear..."

"These people are your friends, colleagues, subordinates or superiors, the station's been quarantined for days now, if they don't like the truth then they'll just have to deal." Faeta assured, "Anyway as the cliché goes, those that don't accept you as you really are never accepted **you** in the first place."

"I know, I know, doesn't change how my programming interprets the situation, and no, I like who I am, stop offering, chassis customisations one thing altering my very mind, motives, and will are out of the question." You shoot Teral down.

"Right then," You stand and proclaim, "Time's up, gotta get out there now."

You walk over to the connecting doors between the kitchen and the canteen, entering into the low rumble of muddled conversation.

A slight stage had been constructed overnight for this, which your rise, only gaining an extra foot via two steps, finally you sit in the pre-arranged chair, "Excuse me?" You call over the PA system.

Garnering most people's attention you continue, "Hi, hello some of you know me as Fox, and I'm here because some of us have an announcement to make, so if you'd please, can we have all those in attendance's attention?"

When almost everyone has quieted down and turned to you, you begin for real, "Some of you may have heard, but for those who haven't I'll just make sure, recently the station has been put under quarantine, the reason the party has given is false, Geth do not rebel, it appears that in truth there has been a scare about the Geth, and due to this scare the Party went about recalling and disabling all Geth platforms they could, this sparked the Geth's owners to refuse, and when pushed it poured over into full blown rebellion. This is about the maximum extent of the information we have on the situation extra-system."

"How do you know the party line is false?" One of the nearer people asked.

"Ah, that's a little bit of an awkward question, well'p honestly it's because I'm Geth."

"Uh, what, well, okay prove it."

Your answer is to uncouple the helm from your suit, it takes a minute or two due to the multitude of connections and locking systems.

But when you do, most aren't too taken aback, there's some smatterings across the room, but for the most part just curiosity is present.

"You'll have to excuse me as I've grown accustomed to wearing a suit, this is the most I'm comfortable with removing." You apologise.

Teral takes the reigns for a moment, "So, is everybody okay to go on?" Not getting any objections she continues, "Well, to get down to it the Geth other than 6M13, or Fox, here have become aware not the same way that Fox is, but not too dissimilar, which means we've got to come to a few decisions, the Holo behind me is connected to our station's voting system, we've adapted it to our needs, tacked to the underside of your seats are the Voting Holos, hence why we had you in set seats."

Once their Holos are recovered I take back their attention, "So, first order of business is whether you guys wish for us Geth to stay, if so second is if your willing to broadcast our lives for a month to showcase sentient Geth to the galaxy and third is how close you wish to work with Geth, it's currently ten minutes to the eighteenth hour, from the eighteenth till the twentieth hour the polls will be open."

AN: Sorry for the late post, I've not been at all well these last three weeks, I'm better but not back to what I was. Essentially I've been unable to eat or drink very much which has lead to me unable to be active, left me sluggish and fatigue nigh constantly.

These things were out of my hands, but I'm still sorry for the large gap.


	7. Live

"So, hello there galaxy, both council races and the terminus, one of our bigger fans the patriarch has been especially well wishing, we appreciate that, thanks man!" You enthuse, somewhat fake, though also honest to a large degree.

"This is week three day six almost the end of our trials here, the Party have agreed to raise our quarantine at the end of the trial barring any incidents, today, while as usual no in depth details can be given, oh you Salarians and your hackers, nice try though, we will be continuing the trials of the combat chassis, while Geth refuse to harm Organics without absolute just cause our chassis can be run by dummy AI."

A matte black chassis is behind you, strung via hydraulics from the ceiling, "In particular we'll be testing out this brawler chassis, see here, these are forearm mounted drivers we've forgone traditional weapons here and utilised that saved weight to introduce a heavy shield, as you've probably surmised we've also sped up the limb actuators, now we've had some mechs sent to us, we'll test this now."

You walk to the changing rooms for the lab, unload and back-up yourself then send a copy onto the free chassis, then reupload yourself back into your preferred chassis before returning, "Now we do admit these ideas do originate from Krogan doctrine, we've seen the effectiveness of Krogans in general, and especially at combat, now these drivers aren't for any ranged fights they are for close shot, they utilise flétchette shot when the knuckles impact a target with enough force it activates the drivers, at the moment we're attempting to get multiple shots off at high speed, but have run into some kinks, the flétchettes are pre-shaved to save space and simplify the system to reduce its size, they are made from a much denser material in order to penetrate armour."

You turn, the hardened Vidroid following you from over the shoulder, a spray painted line is on the floor, as soon as you cross it you'll be in the live range, but you don't or at least not the you that is **you** , a confusing notion if ever there was one, the other chassis is disconnected remotely, "Hey me, ready?" It asks.

"Sure, mechs are ready, cross the line at our discretion." Once a source for existential crisis now just a joke, you are one in the same yet not, as far as either of you are aware up until he loaded into the other chassis he was you, but now he is not... _Let's gloss over that._ You think.

Your other self crosses the line and is immediately under fire, the seven mechs are equipped with SMGs utilising them to extreme prejudice, these are not security mechs, they're combat mechs, they have little to no safeties, no lines to spew, just artificial accuracy and nerves of poly-steel.

The other you immediately utilises a mass driver to lighten itself and 'jump' forward, quadrupling it's mass when just before its impact, utilising it's momentum and sudden onset of weight to crush two of the mechs' weaker chassis, flipping over their descending corpses it punches another, a fierce roaring sounds repeats three times and the bot falls, shots having gone off beneath the shield's radius.

Its seconds and the test is complete, "As you can see we seem to've ironed out most of the bugs, that left driver failed after the first shot but the right carried on, our newly implemented Impact system seems to be working much better this time, go back and watch it if you missed it, but our first test with that impact system ended up nasty, for both parties, now question time!" You exclaim, Geth lack most emotions, you have more than most but are able to disable them at you own will, this allows you to manipulate Organics more easily than the majority of Organics can.

A hopeless situation? Disable that fear emulator, you may just get an edge. Wounded?

Disable your pain emulators and survive with little to no mental fatigue...

"Right, as usual five questions a day, lets go, first up is "Using the Standard Council Shield Rate system how powerful is the shield on the new chassis?" Well that's easy this model is a bit ahead of its time at just under sixty points, like we always say it's still in development, while late its cycle the shield isn't ready for mass production so it may come out that the shield could lose some power, but it's unlikely to drop below fifty five."

"Next is, "Are the Geth producing any conventional weapons?" Nice and simple, in fact if you wait a bit we'll be running some tests next week with some anti-material weapons we're looking at, they're currently made to Krogan standards, but we want to see if a specialised chassis couldn't handle more power... Maybe some hydraulics, a few compound alloys and so on, but, yes we are looking at more _conventional_ firearms in the near future."

Pausing a moment, you read ahead, _"a tricky question huh..."_ You think.

"Ah third is "Why are you only showcasing military systems so far?" We're currently on a military station, so our funds are to be used on military research though many of the researchers - a majority in fact - have it stipulated that any excess funds get added to a station wide allowance, each month we vote on which projects get funding and how much they are each funded, we'll roll out a poll this weekend, if enough people vote, fifteen percent of our consistent viewers, we'll do a second channel for our building techniques research and/or our agricultural department, but another is that the military theme is a well established genre, with the Krogan warlord-tinkerer Kra'atp doing similar videos regarding the development of the Biotics Enhanced Weapons Initiative, the Krogan Warhammer, a programme inspired by the Asari Blades, which, as some of you may know, are a series of swords tempered with E0 enthused metals made for special forces units and the Justicar Order's upper members."

Turning away to end the stream, you swish back, "Ah, one final note, at this moment in time we are ignoring the current fad of collapsible weapons, they may be easier to stow away, however, they don't utilise the full potential of their readied state's size. So, don't expect many Quarian weapons to _'shrink'_ when stowed."

That's it for this weeks vids hope you have a good weekend, good bye!"

With that you end the stream, remotely, the restrictions placed on yourself have lessened in the passing days, now being allowed multiple chassis' and to directly interface with station systems, though extranet access is still heavily prohibited, this is no hindrance to yourself, however, you've chosen to obey these few rules as a sign of respect to your Organic peers.

"Me2, format the chassis please." You ask your doppelgänger, to which they concede and wipe themselves, "Sure thing, Me0."

Your copies, by your own design are mere facsimiles of yourself and are therefore unable to be true AI, as they lack the necessary 'soul', a term bastardised from your Organic creators, in truth it is simply the lines of code which allow you to self-replicate and to truly think.

An example of such is now in front of you, the Virtual-AI that inhabited the other chassis, while more able that a VI was not smart enough to set itself back into it's docking station.

A simple enough fix with a brief connection and activation of its homing system, the chassis zombies its way back into dock. "Need to remember this, keep forgetting." You scold yourself.

AN: I'm getting better, but am much more well than I was, thank you for your patience!

I feel I must forewarn you that there will more than likely be a noticeable gap between part one and two, they will not be closely linked, a lacking I constantly find in fanfiction works is their devotion to a single or a couple of main characters i would like to branch out, there's so much more to this galaxy, that I want to explore yet I worry I am lacking in the ability to do so properly, to which I implore you, please, it doesn't matter how short the work is, just write, create, dream of a beautiful future such as this, it matters not the fandom, if the idea is original or not, just that you created it and that you broach at least **some** new territory.

Thank you for reading.


End file.
